Chelsea vs AC Milan - Preview

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A topsy-turvy pre-season in America is set to conclude on Sunday when Chelsea face regular pre-season opposition AC Milan in Miami’s Sun Life Stadium. With a mediocre record of a win, a draw and a loss from their 3 games in the States, Chelsea will be looking to end the tour on a high with a win over a depleted Milan side.

Miami

Chelsea will play in Florida for the first time ever this weekend at Sun Life Stadium. Home to the world famous Miami Dolphins, it was opened in 1987 and it has gone on to host five Super Bowls and two baseball World Series, having also been home to the Florida Marlins from 1993 until 2011.

Although the Miami MLS team, Miami Fusion, is now defunct, the city has a rich culture of sports with Miami Heat (current NBA Champions) the most notable franchise based in the city. Despite not having an MLS team, football is quite popular in Miami due to its Spanish-speaking community. Last summer, Chivas Gudalajara beat an under-strength Barcelona side 4-1 in front of 70,800 fans. A similar number is expected to turn out for the game this weekend.

AC Milan

AC Milan, similar to Chelsea, are a club in transition (decline). After losing the Serie A despite being 5 points ahead of eventual winners Juventus at one stage, Milan parted ways with club legends Gennaro Gattuso, Alessandro Nesta, Clarence Seedorf and Filippo Inzaghi (turned head coach of Milan’s U-17 team)while Mark van Bommel decided to end his career in the Netherlands. As if that wasn’t enough, the Rossoneri then decided to cash in on two of their best players – Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva to another of our pre-season opponents – Paris St Germain.

Milan’s signings in the off-season indicate a lack of funds available to the club.

Their first signing of the summer was Italian international Ricardo Montolivo on a Bosman transfer. Further, they have added Nancy midfielder Bakaye Traore and Cruzerio goalkeeper Gabriel while also acquiring Kevin Constant on loan. Stephan El Shaarawy’s co-ownership settlement was also resolved over the summer while rumours persist that Milan have made a bid to take Kaka back to the San Siro and that Montpellier centre back Mapou Yanga-M’Biwa is on his way to Milan.

Over the course of the summer, Milan’s well-documented financial problems forced them to sell key players and that has left a weakened squad which is in danger of diminishing the high standards the club has set in its storied history. Pundits have already written off Milan’s scudetto hopes as rivals continue to strengthen in Italy. The Rossoneri lost to both Inter and Juventus in the Trofeo TIM last weekend to further reiterate public opinion of their decline.

The tournament is an annual pre-season exercise for Juventus, AC and Inter Milan characterized by three 45-minute round robin matches between the mentioned teams. Milan lost their first game against Juve when Bakaye Traore conceded a penalty which was converted by Mirko Vucinic. They took the lead in the 2^nd game against rivals Inter through Stephan El Shaarawy but Fredy Guarin and Rodrigo Palacio hit back for Inter to consign Milan to another loss. Milan then bounced back from their TIM trophy disappointment with a 1-0 win over Schalke in the Veltins Arena with Urby Emmanuelson scoring after rounding the keeper. That was a morale-boosting win for Milan against a strong Schalke team who started with the likes of Jefferson Farfan, Julian Draxler, Jurado and Lewis Holtby and then brought on Huntelaar in the second half.

Probable XI: Amelia, Abate, Bonera, Mexes, Mesbah, Nocerino, Ambrosini, Montolivo, Boateng, El Shaarawy, Robinho

Chelsea

Chelsea are much further along in their pre-season schedule as they prepare for their final pre-season game in the US tonight. The optimism in the aftermath of the win over Seattle Sounders in the first game were all but wiped out by unconvincing performances against PSG and the MLS All Stars. di Matteo is yet to settle on a first choice line-up as he rotated his players over the 3 games but he has indicated that he will be looking to give more playing time to the senior players tonight in Miami. Sticking to the 4-2-3-1 formation used last season, Chelsea looked lost on the attack against the MLS All-Stars and PSG. The passing was poor and the runs made by the offensive players were easily picked up. Even the defence looked ill at ease on the few occasion the All-Stars countered. As good as the defence was in those heroic Champions league nights last season, it is still not air tight when caught on the counter. Firstly, the 2 centre-backs were too far from each other and were constantly exposed by an under-par All-Stars side.

Although the score-line read 3-2, both Chelsea goals arised from set-pieces. First, John Terry headed in a routine corner and then, Lampard tapped in after strolling into the area unmarked, having taken a corner. We had a lot of the ball but very little penetration. A lot of the times, the strikers decided to take a touch rather than pull the trigger. The midfield rarely drove forward to support the attackers as Lukaku was left isolated in the centre-forward role although even on the odd few moments he received the ball from the midfield, his first touch let him down. Towards the end of the game, after Lukaku had been subbed off, the players started to bomb the penalty area with aerial balls but never created enough pressure to stretch the All-Stars. At the end of the day, although it was just a warm-up game I can’t help but think that we will be far from ready when we line up at Villa Park for the Community Shield in just 2 weeks time.

Probable XI: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Meireles, Marin, Hazard, Ramires, Torres

Players to Watch

Milan – Stephan El Shaarawy – The Italy Under-21 international arrived at San Siro just over 12 months ago as part of a co-ownership agreement with Genoa but the Rossoneri bought the player outright this summer. The 19-year-old striker, who was born in Savona to an Egyptian father and Italian mother, scored two goals in 22 Serie A appearances last term as he established himself at the San Siro. He scored in the TIM trophy against Inter and was lively in the game against Schalke

Chelsea – Fernando Torres – High off a Euro 2012 final victory where he scored and assisted Chelsea team-mate Juan Mata in Spain’s 4-0 win over Italy, a fresh and fit Fernando Torres is set to make his first appearance for Chelsea this pre-season. El Nino heads into the new season as

the club's first choice senior striker after the departure of club legend Didier Drogba. He will be relishing the prospect of linking up with new signings Eden Hazard and Marko Marin as he intends to rewrite a horror start to his Chelsea career as the FA Cup and Champions League medal were won with Fernando on the bench. Hopefully, this is the season when his Chelsea career belatedly takes off

di Matteo on Torres’ role tonight

Fernando is going to play in his centre-forward role, it is just a question of how much time he can play on the pitch. He joined at the beginning of the week, he has had a flight and jet lag and a few training sessions in his legs so we will have to see. I will probably decide after training. It will be at least 30 minutes but we will see after.

Foot-Notes

This is the 5^th time Chelsea are facing AC Milan in a pre-season friendly

1. Chelsea 2-3 AC Milan – 2 August 2004 – Philadelphia, USA

2. Chelsea 1-0 AC Milan – 24 July 2005 – Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA

3. Chelsea 1-1 AC Milan – 31 July 2005 – New Jersey, USA

4. Chelsea 5-0 AC Milan – 3 August 2008 – Moscow, Russia

5. Chelsea 2-1 AC Milan – 24 July 2009 – Baltimore, USA

Yuri Zhirkov scored on his Chelsea debut to separate the two sides last time after Drogba’s stunning strike was cancelled out by Clarence Seedorf

Chelsea have played AC Milan only twice outside friendlies. In the 99-00 season, our Champions League debut, we were drawn alongside Milan in the group stage. The Blues led by Gianfranco Zola impressed in the 0-0 draw at the Bridge before clawing back from a goal down to draw 1-1 at the San Siro. Incidently, it was Roberto di Matteo, making his Champions League debut in place of the injured Poyet, who made the assist with a high ball over the Milan back four which Wise controlled and clipped a left-foot shot under the body of the advancing Abbiati.